By What Is a Good Dividend Yield in 2026?
There is no single good dividend yield. See where US payers actually cluster, and how sector norms and the 10-year Treasury reset the bar for income.
A good dividend yield is a range rather than a single number, and the range is tighter than most stock screeners suggest. Across US-listed companies worth more than $1 billion, 81.3% of all dividend payers yield under 4%, and only 62 names sit in the 8% and up band. What counts as good shifts with the industry and with what a Treasury note pays the same week, and the growth rate of the payment matters as much as its size.
What is a good dividend yield in 2026?
Start with the shape of the market instead of a rule of thumb. Every US-listed company above $1 billion in market value and $5 a share that pays a dividend, sorted into yield bands at the latest snapshot on file:
The exact SQL behind every number
WITH payers AS (
SELECT ticker,
argMax(dividend_yield, date) * 100 AS yield_pct
FROM global_markets.stocks_ratios
WHERE date = (SELECT max(date) FROM global_markets.stocks_ratios)
AND price >= 5
AND market_cap >= 1000000000
AND dividend_yield > 0
GROUP BY ticker
),
banded AS (
SELECT multiIf(yield_pct < 1, 'under 1%',
yield_pct < 2, '1 to 2%',
yield_pct < 3, '2 to 3%',
yield_pct < 4, '3 to 4%',
yield_pct < 6, '4 to 6%',
yield_pct < 8, '6 to 8%',
'8% and up') AS yield_band,
min(yield_pct) AS band_floor,
count() AS company_count
FROM payers
GROUP BY yield_band
)
SELECT yield_band,
company_count,
round(100 * company_count / sum(company_count) OVER (), 1) AS pct_of_payers,
round(100 * sum(company_count) OVER (ORDER BY band_floor) / sum(company_count) OVER (), 1) AS cumulative_pct
FROM banded
ORDER BY band_floorThe middle is crowded. The 1 to 2% and 2 to 3% bands hold 21.5% and 20.2% of all payers, and by the top of the 3 to 4% band you have accounted for 81.3% of them. Past that point the population thins fast: 132 companies in the 4 to 6% band, 44 in 6 to 8%, and 62 in 8% and up.
Those bands double as vocabulary. The under 1% and 1 to 2% bands are where a company returns most of its cash some other way. The 2 to 3% and 3 to 4% bands are the broad middle of the US market. The 4 to 6% band is genuinely high and clusters in a few industries. A reading of 6 to 8% or more is rare enough that the price chart deserves a look before the payout does.
What is a good dividend yield by sector?
The biggest single input into a normal yield is the industry. A sector fund gives the cleanest read on its own corner of the market: twelve months of distributions divided by the fund's price in late July 2026.
The exact SQL behind every number
WITH px AS (
SELECT ticker,
argMax(close, window_start) AS price
FROM global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs
WHERE ticker IN ('XLU','XLRE','XLP','XLE','XLF','XLV','XLB','XLI','XLC','XLY','XLK')
AND window_start >= toDateTime('2026-07-20 00:00:00')
AND window_start < toDateTime('2026-07-31 00:00:00')
AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
+ toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) BETWEEN 570 AND 959
GROUP BY ticker
),
dv AS (
SELECT ticker,
sum(cash_amount) AS ttm_distributions
FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
WHERE ticker IN ('XLU','XLRE','XLP','XLE','XLF','XLV','XLB','XLI','XLC','XLY','XLK')
AND cash_amount > 0
AND ex_dividend_date > toDate('2025-07-30')
AND ex_dividend_date <= toDate('2026-07-30')
GROUP BY ticker
)
SELECT transform(px.ticker,
['XLU','XLRE','XLP','XLE','XLF','XLV','XLB','XLI','XLC','XLY','XLK'],
['Utilities','Real estate','Consumer staples','Energy','Financials',
'Health care','Materials','Industrials','Communications',
'Consumer discretionary','Technology'],
'Other') AS sector,
px.ticker AS fund_ticker,
round(dv.ttm_distributions, 3) AS annual_distributions_usd,
round(dv.ttm_distributions / px.price * 100, 2) AS trailing_yield_pct
FROM px
INNER JOIN dv ON px.ticker = dv.ticker
ORDER BY trailing_yield_pct DESCThe spread is wide. Utilities pays 3.31% and Energy pays 3.2%, while Technology pays 0.55%. A yield near the top of that list is ordinary for one industry and an outlier for another, which is why a single company reads better against its own sector than against a market-wide average.
Two structural facts sit behind the top of the list. Real estate investment trusts must distribute most of their taxable income to keep their tax treatment, and regulated utilities run on rate-based cash flows with long payout histories. A large yield in those places is a feature of the business model. The same number on a fast-growing software company is an anomaly worth investigating. How dividend yield is calculated covers the trailing and forward versions of the ratio, which often disagree.
Yield or dividend growth?
A yield measures one year of payments against today's price. It says nothing about where the payment is heading. Ten household payers, current yield beside the change in the annual dividend over five years:
The exact SQL behind every number
WITH px AS (
SELECT ticker,
argMax(close, window_start) AS price
FROM global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs
WHERE ticker IN ('MSFT','MCD','HD','PG','KO','JNJ','XOM','CVX','VZ','MO')
AND window_start >= toDateTime('2026-07-20 00:00:00')
AND window_start < toDateTime('2026-07-31 00:00:00')
AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
+ toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) BETWEEN 570 AND 959
GROUP BY ticker
),
dv AS (
SELECT ticker,
sumIf(cash_amount, ex_dividend_date > toDate('2025-07-30')
AND ex_dividend_date <= toDate('2026-07-30')) AS ttm_now,
sumIf(cash_amount, ex_dividend_date > toDate('2020-07-30')
AND ex_dividend_date <= toDate('2021-07-30')) AS ttm_five_years_ago
FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
WHERE ticker IN ('MSFT','MCD','HD','PG','KO','JNJ','XOM','CVX','VZ','MO')
AND distribution_type = 'recurring'
AND cash_amount > 0
AND ((ex_dividend_date > toDate('2020-07-30') AND ex_dividend_date <= toDate('2021-07-30'))
OR (ex_dividend_date > toDate('2025-07-30') AND ex_dividend_date <= toDate('2026-07-30')))
GROUP BY ticker
)
SELECT px.ticker AS symbol,
round(dv.ttm_now / px.price * 100, 2) AS current_yield_pct,
round(100 * (dv.ttm_now / dv.ttm_five_years_ago - 1), 1) AS five_year_dividend_growth_pct,
round(dv.ttm_now, 2) AS dividends_per_share_ttm
FROM px
INNER JOIN dv ON px.ticker = dv.ticker
WHERE dv.ttm_five_years_ago > 0
AND dv.ttm_now > 0
ORDER BY current_yield_pctRead the two columns together. MSFT sits at the bottom of the yield column at 0.79%, with its annual payment up 62.6% across the five years. MO sits at the top at 6.23% with growth of 23.3%. In between are the long-established payers: MCD at 2.73% with 43.6% growth, and HD at 2.78% with 47%.
The mechanic behind the tradeoff is plain. Yield on cost, the current payment divided by the price you actually paid, rises with every raise and never moves with the share price afterwards. A fast-growing payment starting from a low yield can pass a flat payment starting from a high one over a long holding period, and a payment that gets cut moves the other way. Dividend growth champions ranks the names with the longest unbroken raise records.
When a high dividend yield is a warning
Yield is a fraction with a price in the denominator, and that denominator moves every trading day. A yield can double while the company writes exactly the same check. Intel across the 42 months from January 2021 to June 2024 is the textbook version of that arithmetic.
The exact SQL behind every number
WITH px AS (
SELECT toStartOfMonth(toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) AS month_start,
argMax(close, window_start) AS price,
max(toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) AS last_day
FROM global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs
WHERE ticker = 'INTC'
AND toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) >= toDate('2021-01-01')
AND toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) <= toDate('2024-06-30')
AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
+ toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) BETWEEN 570 AND 959
GROUP BY month_start
),
dv AS (
SELECT ex_dividend_date, cash_amount
FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
WHERE ticker = 'INTC'
AND distribution_type = 'recurring'
AND frequency = 4
AND cash_amount > 0
AND ex_dividend_date >= toDate('2020-01-01')
)
SELECT formatDateTime(px.month_start, '%Y-%m') AS month,
formatDateTimeInJodaSyntax(px.month_start, 'MMMM yyyy') AS month_label,
round(any(px.price), 2) AS price,
round(argMax(dv.cash_amount, dv.ex_dividend_date), 4) AS quarterly_dividend_usd,
round(argMax(dv.cash_amount, dv.ex_dividend_date) * 4 / any(px.price) * 100, 2) AS dividend_yield_pct
FROM px, dv
WHERE dv.ex_dividend_date <= px.last_day
GROUP BY px.month_start
ORDER BY px.month_startIn January 2021 the quarterly payment of $0.33 against a $55.48 share read 2.38%. The payment held while the price fell. By October 2022 the same $0.365 check against a $28.44 share showed 5.13%, near the high of the stretch, and any screener sorted by yield would have surfaced the company on that number.
What came next is the part the screen could not display. By May 2023 the quarterly payment was $0.125 and the quoted yield read 1.59%. The last row of the panel, June 2024, shows the same $0.125 a quarter at 1.62%. Nothing about the earlier quote was inaccurate on the day it printed. It described a payment that was later reset.
That is the yield trap in one panel. The screen shows the reward column and hides the history of the denominator. Dividend cuts looks at what the run-up to a cut looks like across the market, and the ex-dividend date explains which payments a buyer is entitled to in the first place.
How does a good yield compare with the 10-year Treasury?
Every dividend competes with the alternative of lending money to the government. That bar has moved a long way in five years.
The exact SQL behind every number
SELECT formatDateTime(toStartOfMonth(date), '%Y-%m') AS month,
formatDateTimeInJodaSyntax(toStartOfMonth(date), 'MMMM yyyy') AS month_label,
round(argMax(yield_10_year, date), 2) AS treasury_10y_pct
FROM global_markets.treasury_yields
WHERE date >= toDate('2021-07-01')
AND date <= toDate('2026-07-30')
AND yield_10_year IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY toStartOfMonth(date)
ORDER BY toStartOfMonth(date)The 10-year note paid 1.24% in July 2021 and 4.67% at the most recent month on file, July 2026. Hold that beside the bands above: 69.9% of US dividend payers yield under 3%.
The two instruments are not interchangeable. A coupon is fixed for the life of the note and the principal returns at maturity. A dividend can be raised or cut, and the share price moves on its own. The comparison is one of opportunity cost, and the same dividend yield reads differently against 1.24% than it does against 4.67%. Dividend yield vs the 10-year Treasury tracks that gap across a decade.
Dividend yield FAQ
Is a 6% dividend yield good?
It is high. Among US payers above $1 billion in market value, 44 names sit in the 6 to 8% band and 62 in 8% and up, against 81.3% of payers under 4%. A number that size concentrates in a few industries, and it can also be the arithmetic of a falling price.
What is a normal dividend yield by sector?
Sector funds give the cleanest read. At the late-July 2026 snapshot, Utilities paid 3.31% on twelve months of distributions while Technology paid 0.55%. A single company is best measured against its own sector's reading first.
Does a high dividend yield mean a stock is cheap?
Not on its own. The yield rises whenever the price falls, with no change at all to the payment. Intel's quarterly dividend was $0.365 in October 2022 at a quoted 5.13% yield, and $0.125 by May 2023.
Is dividend yield or dividend growth more important?
They answer different questions. MSFT yields 0.79% with five-year dividend growth of 62.6%, while MO yields 6.23% with growth of 23.3%. Yield describes the cash today. Growth describes the direction of that cash.
How does a dividend yield compare with cash or Treasuries?
The 10-year Treasury paid 4.67% at the most recent monthly reading on file, July 2026. That coupon is fixed and the principal returns at maturity, while a dividend can change and the share price carries its own risk. Where to park idle cash covers the short end of that comparison.
Every figure on this page is a stored, versioned query over filed dividend records and real prices. Open any panel to read the SQL behind it, or screen the full payer list by yield on the Strasmore terminal.